{"id":177244,"date":"2025-09-29T09:59:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T09:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/177244\/"},"modified":"2025-09-29T09:59:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T09:59:09","slug":"will-ashcroft-named-best-afl-finals-player-to-win-gary-ayres-award-to-add-to-brisbane-lions-accolades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/177244\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Ashcroft named best AFL finals player to win Gary Ayres Award to add to Brisbane Lions accolades"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brisbane Lions midfield star Will Ashcroft has added the AFL coaches’ award for player of the finals to his growing list of accolades.<\/p>\n

Ashcroft, who claimed a second Norm Smith Medal in the Lions’ 47-point grand final thumping of Geelong<\/a>, polled 26.5 votes across four games to win the Gary Ayres Award.<\/p>\n

The 21-year-old finished four votes clear of Lions co-captain Harris Andrews (22.5).<\/p>\n

Hawthorn on-baller Jai Newcombe (18.5 votes) was third, despite playing only three finals games.<\/p>\n

Rival grand final coaches Chris Fagan and Chris Scott collectively agreed with the Norm Smith Medal voting panel, awarding Ashcroft nine of a possible 10 votes for his performance on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Lions show why they’re the complete team<\/a><\/p>\n

The Brisbane Lions clinically dismantled Geelong to show last year’s premiership victory was no fluke.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The grand final votes carry an extra 50 per cent loading, meaning Ashcroft was given 13.5.<\/p>\n

“Will’s performances in all finals have been a masterclass in composure and skill,” former Hawthorn champion Ayres said.<\/p>\n

“His ability to shine under pressure, and once again perform in the grand final is remarkable.<\/p>\n

“His performances will leave a lasting impact on the AFL finals landscape and he a very worthy winner of this award.”<\/p>\n

Ashcroft, a son of Brisbane great Marcus, has played just 58 AFL games across three seasons but already has two premierships to his name.<\/p>\n

ABC Sport Daily podcast<\/a><\/p>\n

ABC Sport Daily is your daily sports conversation. We dive into the biggest story of the day and get you up to speed with everything else that’s making headlines.<\/p>\n

He is also the youngest of three players in history to win back-to-back Norm Smith Medals.<\/p>\n

The Lions’ latest triumph also featured Ashcroft’s younger brother Levi, who shone in his debut season.<\/p>\n

“For me, it’s always been about getting the opportunity to play in finals, big finals, grand finals and then win,” Ashcroft said after the grand final.<\/p>\n

“And to contribute, heavily. That’s the way I want to have my legacy.”<\/p>\n

It is the 10th year of the Gary Ayres Award, named after the former Hawks star who played in five premiership sides and won two Norm Smith medals.<\/p>\n

Richmond superstar Dustin Martin won the award three times.<\/p>\n

AAP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brisbane Lions midfield star Will Ashcroft has added the AFL coaches’ award for player of the finals to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":177245,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[5844,638,64,63,3237,11288,588,85,110890],"class_list":{"0":"post-177244","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-abc-sport","9":"tag-afl","10":"tag-au","11":"tag-australia","12":"tag-brisbane-lions","13":"tag-grand-final","14":"tag-sport","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-will-ashcroft"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177244\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}